Hi
My name is Helen I live in Essex although I'm Bath born & bred!!!
I live with my partner Scott & my 12yrold son, we have 4 dogs, 2 shepherds, a border collie & our latest addition a springer spaniel age 4mths we also have cats, various aviary birds, chickens, fish & 48 Jap Quail waiting to Hatch!!!!
Helen

Well i'm Martin, and the OH is Jean, which explains JeMa and a lot of confusion

I have lived in Swindon most my life, with a few escape attempts thwarted by circumstance, not much livestock just one boy and a girl

Having waved banners on lots of things thoughout my life, which with a notably exception or three has been a pretty fruitless activity. I have started to look for areas in which a personal, practical, visible and enjoyable difference can be made

Hence I'm very enthusiastic about what we are doing here at downsizer and on other forums

Hi, I'm John. This is only my second forum. Married with kids and various livestock... 4 hens, 4 guinea pigs, a rabbit, 3 tortoises (currently asleep) and a dog (of mixed ancestry... mostly terrier). I grow as much fruit and veg as my back garden allows and enjoy foraging too. I'm looking forward to getting an allotment to increase my output. Like many people my dream is to own my own piece of land to move towards self sufficiency.

I'm Julie and OH is Tim. He works in computers in London and is a radio amateur, I'm a homemaker, with a long list of hobbies and interests. We have 2 boys, 2 cats and 3 chickens. We have an allotment which I started off a year ago as something to get me out of the house when the youngest started school. My 'mission statement' I suppose you could say is Can I make or grow instead of buy, but we are only beginners at this. Have learnt alot even in a year and look forward to learning more, and having ago at more things.

I'm Gervase and my other half is Mary-Jane. We moved to a crumbling slate-built farmhouse with just over five acres just outside Cardigan in June 2004 and are currently renovating the place prior to starting a smallholding. At the moment I'm slowly slapping 11 tonnes of lime plaster on the stonework, putting up reed matting for ceilings and replacing floors, so the ground outside is lying fallow!
I'm a blacksmith by trade, having retrained a couple of years ago after spending 20 years as a journalist. M-J is a solicitor.
Livestock at the moment comprises just three cats and a 10-year-old boy, but we plan to keep a couple of weaners, some hens, a dozen sheep and cultivate half the land in rotation for crops, including running a couple of polytunnels (winds permitting - in these parts it's a major problem).

The website's a moot point at the moment - it's hosted with a free ISP which seems to be as reliable as Railtrack. Plans are afoot to cough up some dosh and have it properly hosted, but until then it's there in fits and starts (Grr!)
As for pix. what are the rulings on posting pix in forum messages? I don't want to hog the bandwidth...

I'm Dunc, I'm married to Sharon and live in East Lancashire. I'm currently working as a computer programmer but I'm looking for a way out of this.
We've had an allotment for almost a year now, and have learned quite a bit - still a long way to go though.

Oh, and I'm jealous of Treodactyl because I have a picture of my halloween pumpkin too, but they thought of using theirs first. I'll have to think of another picture now. Curses